


Welcome to the Family

by Leni



Series: Relativity Issues [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 01:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9410762
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leni/pseuds/Leni
Summary: "Everything is fine, my dear."(Nothing would be fine.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnnieVH](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnnieVH/gifts).



> Prompt: beginning

Rumpelstiltskin knew it would be pointless to attempt to pry his girlfriend away from Cruella and the Black Fairy's attentions. If he had hoped to keep the evening to a short dinner and then make their excuses to rush back to Storybrooke, Belle had seemed delighted at the idea of sitting down with 'Ella' and 'Delilah' for a brief chat.

They were already halfway into the second hour, and none of them showed any sign of bringing their happy society to a halt. The two older women were keeping Belle distracted with carefully edited tales of his childhood, making at least the effort to make sure that there were no allusions to either the century or specific ages for themselves.

"Be glad we don't bring out the photo albums," Cruella teased him when she noticed his thunderous expression.

Belle bounced on her seat. "There are pictures?"

Rumpelstiltskin raised an eyebrow, smirking at the thought of his birth mother caught in her own words. When he had been a child, they would have needed a painter brought home and several hours of work before they'd had a single picture.

"Well, not here," Cruella said airily.

As ever, Rumpelstiltskin tried not to feel envious of the ease with which lies rolled off a human's tongue. It had taken him decades to be able to tell the difference, and in a few cases it would still give him a hard time when the other person was in denial. Humans were complicated. Much more interesting than the collection Pan kept in his little island, and definitely less foolish than those who braved an interview with the Black Fairy for a favor.

Human emotions came in all sizes and packages, and often made for interesting mixes. The brave could be foolish, the cowards could be powerful, and beautiful young ladies could fall in love with older men who knew little about courting women, and even less about dating them.

Right now, he would have traveled in time with a disposable camera if it would have kept the disappointed pout off Belle's face.

"Pity," she said, and then grinned. "It would have been fun."

Then a voice he hadn't expected to hear through the evening spoke up. "It can still be fun," Pan said, though he didn't look up from the game on his iPhone.

Cruella and the Black Fairy looked over as well, a hint of surprise on their otherwise smooth expressions. They also were familiar with the conditions Rumpelstiltskin had set in order to hold this meeting. Prominent among them had been the old adage not to say anything if there was nothing good to say.

There hadn't been a peep from Pan throughout the afternoon except for a brief greeting when Rumpelstiltskin and Belle and the requests to pass him the salt or the salad from down the table. Since he was playing the role of a teenage cousin hooked up to the online world, Belle hadn't suspected that 'Peter's' lack of participation in the conversation was too out of the ordinary.

Except that now he had spoken, and knowing that Belle wouldn't let go of that tidbit, Rumpelstiltskin started to wish Pan had at least a half-human's gift to bend the truth. 

"So there are pictures?" Belle broke into the tense silence, unaware of its cause.

Pan looked up. Wearing one of those poisonously charming grins, he nodded. "Indeed."

Rumpelstiltskin exchanged looks with his godmother and birth mother, realizing that they were just as surprised.

Pan sucked in his shoulders, a typical boy already tired of giving information that wasn't about him. "Well, drawings. And several rough sketches" he admitted, clicking his way through a new level in his game. "Found about a dozen of them." He gave a vague head shake in Rumpelstiltskin's direction. "They should still be in his dad's study."

The picture of Pan in a study almost made him chuckle.

The realization that Pan couldn't be lying and those drawings had to be real rendered him mute.

Belle took his silence as permission to prod further. "That's great!" she cried out, already coming to her feet and forgetting her insecurities about being a guest at such a great house. She turned to him, a huge smile on her face. "Won't you show me? You never said your father was an artist!"

Rumpelstiltskin narrowed his eyes. "I don't think he merits the name," he said. 

In perfect mimicry of a sullen sixteen-year-old, Pan rolled his eyes.

"Little boys should show more respect," Rumpelstiltskin grit out.

Pan gave him an amused look. "Yes, they should," he said pointedly, needing no more than that hateful smirk to remind Rumpelstiltskin who would be regarded as the real child in their original society.

No wonder the fae had no punishment for parricide, Rumpelstiltskin thought. It must be a rite of passage among them.

He felt himself bristle, and knew that at further provocation he and Pan would start to argue. That would inevitably lead to a fight, and the impressive mansion would be reduced to no better than rubble by the time he and Pan had settled down.

Belle would never be allowed to retain her memories of the afternoon, but Rumpelstiltskin knew from experience that missing memories didn't take the distrust along with them.

He made a fist and tried to ignore the adolescent abomination.

Pan chuckled. "Always so weak," he whispered.

Incensed, Rumpelstiltskin grabbed for his magic.

...and felt as if a pail of freezing water had been poured over him. From Pan's offended expression, he was experiencing the same snuffing of his power.

"Rum?" Bell asked, sounding worried.

Rumpelstiltskin forced himself to smile. "Everything is fine, my dear."

From the corner of his eye, Rumpelstiltskin saw his birth mother and godmother share a look. What would have been an exasperated exchange between two mortal women became a whole discussion after centuries of being burdened with the other's constant presence in their lives.

When the Black Fairy gave a tiny nod, Rumpelstiltskin groaned. 

This wouldn't be fine.

"Now, boys," Cruella said, her tone too sweet. "Why don't you go upstairs to look for Malcolm's work? Belle can stay here with us girls."

Pan looked rebellious.

Troubled to find himself agreeing with the disgusting piece of slime, Rumpelstiltskin shook his head. Leaving Belle alone with the other two women was a recipe for disaster. "I think---"

"I think you can do this sweet girl a favor and bring down those pictures, instead of hauling her over to the third floor."

"I don't mind, Ella," Belle piped in.

Cruella gave her a fond look, then tutted. "I'm too old-fashioned to let you run around on those heels when there are strapping young men around to do the work instead." Belle was frowning, ready to challenge that bit of foolishness, so Cruella smiled and struck on her weaker side. "You don't mind spending time with Delilah and me, do you?"

Belle, always eager to please, finally shook her head.

"But," Rumpelstiltskin started.

Cruella's head snapped toward him and Pan. She gave father and son a warning glare, careful to time it with the Black Fairy drawing Belle to sit beside her and distracting her with yet another amusing anecdote. Her index finger motioned between the two males and then pulled up in wordless command.

Rumpelstiltskin and Pan grumbled and huffed, but both of them stood to their feet without protest. 

The only reason the Black Fairy would pretend to be uninvolved was if she was already sure her wishes would be carried out. Neither of them wanted the strongest of the fairies in any realm to actually pay attention to them when they had displeased her.

"We'll be back at once," he promised Belle.

Belle smiled guilelessly. "Oh, you don't need to worry," she reassured him. Sweet Belle. Darling Belle. _Completely oblivious Belle_. "I'm sure I'll have a great time with your aunts."

Rumpelstiltskin fought the urge to break through the Black Fairy's dampening magic and whisk his love away back to town.

The Black Fairy grinned and put a hand on Belle's shoulder, effectively placing her under her protection. Even at full power, his magic would be useless against her. "How could we not?" she asked, sounding actually eager to get to know Belle better. "Your Belle is such a delight!"

Belle blushed. Whether at the praise or the second-hand claim of ownership, he didn't know.

"Indeed," Cruella concurred, sitting down on Belle's other side and patting the back of her hand fondly, "I think this is the beginning of a great friendship."

And the three looked up at him, similarly content smiles on their faces.

Rumpelstiltskin gulped.

Took a step back.

"You're doomed, boy," Pan whispered.

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head and marched away, unwilling to discuss the subject with the devil of his childhood. "It will be fine," he repeated to himself.

And refused to admit that at this point it was more stubbornness than logic that made him say it.

 

The End  
21/01/17


	2. Father and Son

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> prompt: pretty

It didn't take long to retrieve the thick folders of charcoal drawings that Pan must have brought with him to Maine. A part of Rumpelstiltskin wanted to ask why there were so many sketches of his childhood, and whether it was possible that Pan had actually sat down and thought about his son for long enough to make them. He even tested them with a drop of magic, surprised when he recognized the old spells that had carefully preserved the paper so the drawings looked only a few decades old. 

Why would Pan do the work, and then keep it? It made no sense. 

But experience kept the questions unasked. Pan had never cared for him except as the result of a whim, and at this late date Rumpelstiltskin would say with confidence that these drawings were a piece of a plot Pan had either given up or was still in process, rather than a sign of fatherly love. With that thought, Rumpelstiltskin quickened his pace, eager to return to the living room so he could keep an eye on Belle.

His hurry made him slip, and he forgot to lean on his cane.

"So that ankle has finally healed," Pan commented cheerily, as if he hadn't mocked the limp every time they had met in the last few centuries. "I can't believe it took this long."

Rumpelstiltskin shrugged.

He hadn't shared information about his wound with anybody. Pan certainly wouldn't be the first.

"Had to keep up with your lass, huh? Can hardly show her a good time on a lame leg. Oh, don't look like that, son. I was about to congratulate you!" He ignored Rumpelstiltskin's pointed look of distaste, and continued merrily. "One thing I'll say for you: you always had an eye for the feisty ones." The leer looked out of place on a boyish face. "I bet she's not so demure and prim when she's got you alone. She has that look about her, like she'll have you anywhere you can pin her down to."

Pan laughed at the anger on Rumpelstiltskin's face. "You're going to tell me I'm wrong?"

Rumpelstiltskin didn't have to tell him anything at all.

The silence was taken as agreement. "Well, well. So that's how it is. Guess this begs the question..." Pan gave him an amused glance. "...what's that pretty thing doing with you, Rumple?"

Rumpelstiltskin scowled.

He might be forced to spend time with his father, as the two of them had been summarily expelled from the living room and the tête-a-tête his birth mother and fairy godmother had ensnared Belle into, but he had nothing to say to that youth-faced monster.

"I was starting to be proud of you, my boy. Figured you'd finally given in and realized the only way to live among humans was to have them appropriately leashed."

"Mindless slaves are not my choice of company," Rumpelstiltskin bit out, thinking of his one and only visit to Pan's home. It had seemed such a grand place to a child, full of adventure and older boys who would do as he asked... until he's realized that none of them had a choice. 

Pan clicked his tongue in disgust. Through the centuries he had made his opinion very clear about Rumpelstiltskin's weaknesses. Thinking of the humans as equals was the most ridiculous of them.

"So your little Belle likes you?" he asked with heavy skepticism. "Out of her own free will?"

Rumpelstiltskin pressed his lips together and tried to walk past the older fairy.

A hand on his elbow, with more strength than a teenager would wield, clamped down to stop him. 

Rumpelstiltskin tried to wrench away, but Pan only squeezed harder. A burst of magic would free him, but the use of power would alert the Black Fairy that he and Pan were arguing. His godmother would take it as an insult that, after her silent command that they didn't engage into one of their fights while she entertained a favored guest, he and Pan still disobeyed her.

It was bad enough that Belle was the favored guest. Drawing the Black Fairy's attention would be an invitation for her to intervene, and that would only lengthen this visit.

Continued contact with the Black Fairy was the last thing Rumpelstiltskin wanted.

He loathed Pan and had accepted his presence tonight only because Pan had sworn he would return to Neverland as soon as his curiosity over his son's new lover was satisfied. The Black Fairy, Rumpelstiltskin preferred to avoid even when they technically lived in the same realm. She might claim to love him and have a soft spot for his eccentricities (as she'd called his marriage three centuries ago, and would surely call his relationship with Belle as well), but the Black Fairy's love was a double-edged sword.

Rumpelstiltskin still bore the scars of the last time his fairy godmother had intervened on his behalf.

If that wasn't enough, his own pride demanded he took care of Pan by himself. He hadn't been a scared child for centuries, but it seemed like Pan had to re-learn that lesson every time they met.

"Let go," he hissed.

"Come on, lad. Who can you talk about these things if not your father?" Pan's eyes danced with merriment. A flicker of magic, and the image of the teen that had introduced himself to Belle as a younger cousin blurred and reshaped into that of an older man, perhaps a decade older than the age Rumpelstiltskin purported. "I'll understand if you took a shortcut... didn't you?" He studied Rumpelstiltskin's expression, and didn't laugh when he read the truth on his features. Instead his face lightened with a brief flicker of satisfaction. "No love spells. No potions. None of the little deals you're so fond of?"

Rumpelstiltskin bared his teeth. "Belle is none of your business."

"You care for her!" Pan grinned, finally letting go. "Good." 

His voice was deeper. It almost lent him a sheen of earnestness that Rumpelstiltskin was not used to hearing from his father. 

"Stay away from her," he said anyway. "I won't let you ruin my life this time."

Pan smiled. With a wave of his hand, his glamour returned to its teenage version. "Oh, Rumple," he said happily, daring to give him a chiding look, as if offended by Rumpelstiltskin's distrust, "why would I ever want to ruin my son's best chance at true love?"

 

The End  
22/01/17

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are love! *points at comment box*


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